Alix Adrien is dismayed at the rise of what he calls incivility in Quebec schools.
“It’s not only anti-Black racism,” he told Global News from his home in Montreal. “There’s Islamophobia, there’s antisemitism. We seem to be living in a world where these things are again on the rise.”
However, Adrien is more focused on anti-Black racism these days, since, in his role as head of the Quebec Board of Black Educators (QBBE), he’s been getting increasingly more complaints about that from parents across the province.
He said even teachers are targets of racial slurs from students, and are now speaking out because they’re not satisfied with how complaints are handled.
“There are a lot of young, Black teachers in the field who feel that they have no support, be it from the union or the school administration,” he said.
As a result, he said, Black teachers have given up teaching.
That worries some parents of Black students, like Sade Clayton, who feel there already aren’t enough Black teachers.
She also wants stiffer consequences for perpetrators.
“They are starting to feel so comfortable saying these things to students and teachers, because there’s no repercussions,” she said.
To confront the issue, the QBBE has set up a new hotline and aid service to help Black students and teachers facing racism in their institutions. The purpose: to advocate for the victims and offer mutual support.
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Adrien said the hotline means “people from our community know that there is a place where you can call to get help.”
He added that operators are now being trained to receive the calls and that a committee will consider the details of the complaints and determine if further intervention is warranted.
“So far, we have two principals, we have a teacher and we’re looking for potentially a social worker and a lawyer.”
Clayton agrees that systems like this are needed because many families don’t know where to turn and feel abandoned.
“I didn’t realize how many people this was happening to, how many students this was happening to,” she said. “We need to start supporting each other. Whether we organize a support group every Tuesday, or if it’s something higher than that.”
According to Maia Aziz, provincial regional representative of the Quebec student ombudsman’s office, violence and bullying, including racial bullying, is at the centre of close to one in five complaints in the Lac-et-des-Rapides region alone.
“It’s one of the largest themes of complaints that we are receiving,” she said. “It certainly highlights the importance of the issue and people working together to try to solve it.”
Aziz explained that one of the reasons the student ombudsman’s office was set up in 2022 was to deal with the number of delays in having various kinds of complaints addressed.
“Sometimes parents were raising a concern and could be weeks or months before they knew, ‘Has it been addressed, has someone heard me, have they not?’” she said.
She explained that the law defines deadlines for addressing concerns and responding to parents in writing.
There are three steps to the complaints process. First, the parent or student raises their concern with the school.
“The law says that person in the school has up to 10 days to respond,” Aziz said. “If it takes longer than 10 days, or if the parent is not satisfied with the resolution proposed, then they can bring it up to the complaints officer at the school board or school service centre or private school.”
Aziz said that person then has up to 15 days to respond in writing to the parent or student, and if it takes longer, or if the student or parent isn’t satisfied, then the matter is taken to a regional student ombudsman, like her. They then have up to 35 days to investigate.
In addition to providing support and documenting incidents of anti-Black racism in schools, Adrien says the new service will help parents, students and teachers navigate the various processes.
The hotline, 1-866-481-QBBE, is expected to be in place after spring break.